Town Crier: 50 years
If anyone could be called “The Conscience of Los Altos,” it had to be Josephine and Frank Duveneck of Hidden Villa.
When Word War II forced the internment of our local Japanese-American population, it was the Duvenecks who protested and did everything possible to protect the properties of these displaced citizens.
It was the Duvenecks who took in young refugees from Nazi Germany, gave them a home at Hidden Villa and saw that they got an education. Walter Singer was one of those refugees.
And then there was the “Father Devine” episode. Gypsy Buys, owner of the old Morgan estate of Stonebrook, announced that she was selling the place to a black religious group from New York. Local real estate agents, fearful that property values would decline as a result, announced plans to get locals together to pony up the asking price and, thus, keep the property in white hands. The Duvenecks were a distinct minority when they publicly denounced the idea as blatantly racist.
The Feb. 22, 1947, edition of the Palo Alto Times carried the headline, “Father Devine Deal Seen in Los Altos.”
The story said that Gypsy Buys and her husband admitted having contacts with “Negro” groups but refused to say who they were. Taking note of the negative reaction her pending sale had created, Mrs. Buys said that she preferred living in the city rather than in “small towns with small-minded people.”
The ruckus ended quietly with the Buys selling to a San Francisco paving contractor named Rolandi. The Buys, who had had the estate on the market for some time, decided on the Devine ploy to get skin-sensitive locals to take it off their hands.
There may have been many residents who felt the way the Duvenecks did, but few who had the courage to say so publicly. The Duvenecks’ memory and their understanding of the needs of all people is carried on in their generous gift to the public of Hidden Villa Ranch and the lands around it.
Dave MacKenzie co-founded the Town Crier in 1947. He currently lives in Los Altos Hills.
